Experiencing Mahler - (Listener's Companion) by Arved Ashby (Paperback)

About the Book

Arved Ashby takes readers into the seeming chaos of Mahler's work to investigate the elements which make each piece an experiential adventure. The book surveys Mahler's symphonies and song cycles in detail, introducing them as intensely vivid, truthful, and lived and felt experiences.

Book Synopsis

Arved Ashby takes readers into the seeming chaos of Mahler's work to investigate the elements which make each piece an experiential adventure. The book surveys Mahler's symphonies and song cycles in detail, introducing them as intensely vivid, truthful, and lived and felt experiences.

Review Quotes

Ashby takes the reader on an informed tour of each work . . . Describing music with words is difficult, but Ashby is an engaging writer . . . What sets his book apart from similar efforts are CD timestamps . . . that allow readers to "drop the needle" on exactly what is being discussed at a given moment.

Highly Recommended: [Experiencing Mahler] will be appreciated by music lovers at all levels of expertise. The book is valuable as a journey through Mahler's oeuvre with an intelligent and perceptive companion, and as a good excuse to revisit the work of a most important but often misunderstood modern classical composer.

Where does one start? How could even a seasoned Mahlerian find fresh perspectives on his work? If you're completely new to Mahler's music, where do you go for an informed but approachable introduction? The answer to all three questions is Arved Ashby's Experiencing Mahler. Taking us one by one through the symphonies and major song cycles, Ashby combines history, analysis, and critical observation into a highly enjoyable and thought-provoking read. For a clear and informative introduction to Mahler, look no further.

A book like this succeeds if it leads the reader back to the music. I put the thing down every few pages because I just had to listen.

A pleasure. Ashby takes us lovingly through each piece, page-by-page or even phrase-by-phrase. His ability to get into the ideas behind Mahler's scores, asking basic questions on meaning and style is refreshing and perceptive. Experiencing Mahler will make a great introduction to this enthralling composer, or a spur for the already initiated.

During the pandemic I've found myself teaching my Mahler course from home. Experiencing Mahler has been my closest companion-- I consulted it nearly every day for Ashby's brilliant insights into the details of the music. This is a superb addition to the resources for studying Mahler.

Immensely enjoyable, wonderful material that is both compelling and persuasive. The way Ashby frames and reframes our understanding of these pieces has provided me with new insights and new ways of approaching this music.

This is a book to read slowly and treasure: I found myself pouring over each paragraph with delight, wanting to digest every extraordinary thought. Ashby offers a world of poetry and imagination as he shares keen insights-- involving philosophy, psychology, history, and culture-- into this most complex of composers. Experiencing Mahler is a startlingly original book, and it should be required reading for every conductor. But then any Mahler lover will be enchanted by the dreamscapes that Ashby traces for these symphonic worlds.

About the Author

Arved Ashby is professor of music at the Ohio State University, where he specializes in 20th and 21st century art music as well as cultural history and media and communications. He has published articles on Arnold Schoenberg, Frank Zappa, and Benjamin Britten, and he has taught classes on topics as varied as ancient music, Philip Glass' film music, and 20th-century music through the prism of the Beatles.